*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

‘Hope and healing for the world’

by
06 November 2008

by Pat Ashworth

Songs of praise: Patricia Emerson Lee celebrates at Bethel Church, Baltimore PA

Songs of praise: Patricia Emerson Lee celebrates at Bethel Church, Baltimore PA

SUPERLATIVES surrounded Sen­ator Barack Obama’s landslide vic­tory on Tuesday. The Revd Jim Wallis of the Sojour­ners described the election as a “watershed moment in the life and history of the US; a milestone the whole nation could celebrate and embrace as a profound opportunity for deeper reconciliation and social justice”.

It was also a moment that de­mand­ed prophetic leadership and the power of a faith-inspired move­ment, he said. “The best movements have spiritual foundations.”

Both parties had Christian supporters. Campaigners from the “Episcopal Church for Obama” announced that they had hosted 491 events, attended 3466 events, made 10,498 phone calls, and raised more than $29,000 — some measure of the work that had gone on behind the scenes in small organisations.

Hopes have been expressed of a new international vision to tackle world poverty. The Roman Catholic development agency Progressio des­cribed the victory as “a momentous day”, in a year “when the tectonic plates of international relations shifted and hope for a new world order was reborn”.

Hopes were high, too, in Kenya. The Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Revd Benjamin Nzimbi, said before the election that an Obama win would be “a great victory to the forces of change across the world”. He had prayed that the American people would be guided into making a good choice. Commentators have pointed out that US assistance in the battle against HIV/AIDS is crucial to its relations on the continent.

The Bishop of Maseno West in Kenya, the Rt Revd Joseph Wasonga, told Ecumenical News International: “I want to congratulate Obama. I think his winning will bring hope and healing to the whole world. His election has shown that America is truly democratic. . . I hope he will be able to challenge bad governance in Africa.”

The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, has invited the US President-elect to visit his ancestral home at Moneygall in Co. Offaly, after research by the Church of Ireland Rector found familial ties with the parish writes Greg Ryan

Canon Stephen Neill, Rector of Cloughjordan (above) in neigh­bouring Tipperary, which includes Moneygall as a parochial union, discovered that Mr Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather, Fulmouth Kearney, hailed from the village and is recorded in the parish records as having emigrated to the United States in 1850.

Canon Neill said on Tuesday that it felt as though the parish was “on the cusp of history. There is much to celebrate”

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Forthcoming Events

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)